PHP - Get bool to echo false when false

Question

The following code doesn\'t print out anything:

$bool_val = (bool)false;
echo $bool_val;

But the following code prints 1:

Answer 1

var_export provides the desired functionality.

This will always print a value rather than printing nothing for null or false. var_export prints a PHP representation of the argument it's passed, the output could be copy/pasted back into PHP.

var_export(true);    // true
var_export(false);   // false
var_export(1);       // 1
var_export(0);       // 0
var_export(null);    // NULL
var_export('true');  // 'true'   <-- note the quotes
var_export('false'); // 'false'

If you want to print strings "true" or "false", you can cast to a boolean as below, but beware of the peculiarities:

var_export((bool) true);   // true
var_export((bool) false);  // false
var_export((bool) 1);      // true
var_export((bool) 0);      // false
var_export((bool) '');     // false
var_export((bool) 'true'); // true
var_export((bool) null);   // false

// !! CAREFUL WITH CASTING !!
var_export((bool) 'false'); // true
var_export((bool) '0');     // false